In computer applications in which program components or objects are utilized, the persistence of the program components is a factor to be addressed by a developer. The persistence of the program objects may vary according to the needs of a system and the type of program components that are utilized.
For example, program components may include enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) that exist in a Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) environment or in a standalone operation in the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE). The persistence of such components is governed by the standards for an EJB, including the Enterprise JavaBean Specification 3.0 (referred to herein as the EJB 3.0 Specification).
Program components may exist in various different environments, depending on the type of operation. In a conventional process, it may be necessary to handle persistence in differing manners depending on the operation.
In the particular example of EJB persistence, an EJB persistence provider can be used both in enterprise and stand-alone situations, in J2EE and J2SE environments respectively. In conventional operations, the environments are generally treated differently for persistence. For this reason an application developer is generally required to separately address the different operations in each such environment, thereby complicating the application development process.